'Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.' Pablo Picasso

most important thing I learned from the Wood Wharf competition

For those of my non-student friends who read this, we had to enter a competition to design the landscape of a site in Canary Wharf (where most of you work funnily enough) I can't put up what I did yet until we hear the results.
Anyway, it was basically like a giant car park and it's going to have marquees on and events during the Olympics. It's right near where Phil lives actually, passed it on the way to his birthday party last week, haha. Yes, I stopped and took more unnecessary pics.
So! I had my idea, guessed some sizes of my installations blah blah blah. Now I have been doing this a while, yet I learned something very simple, but so helpful. I went to the nearby large space of Blackheath Vale. I measured my stride and walked out the size of the site.
TOTALLY NOT WHAT I THOUGHT.
So it showed me that its hard sometimes to judge the size of an area when it is in context and very useful to walk it out on a blank canvas, as it were. I felt much more engaged with the scale that way. My installation sizes completely changed as a result and I could really visualise their placement.
So that's my tip of the day/week. Tell me yours if you want. 

maybe I will finally get back to blogging which means lots of rambling for you to read- yay! erm...

well, I have spent since yesterday at 3pm on uni work, only briefly stopping to yell at Grant for making too much noise in the Digital Studio last night, discussing near death from a cheese and ham slice with Will (he was actually hospitalized), lots of chats with my group filling in gaps, walking the dog and food of course, can't do without regular eating, even if it is chocolate buttons.

What is your study food of choice? Now that's a serious question.

Mad week this week involving flu last weekend, back to work Tuesday only to have 13 people out of 40 let go from the project I work on (so everyone a bit nervous there now, I still seem to have a job for now) finished my entry for Wood Wharf Tuesday night, handed in the wrong write up unfortunately, baked two cakes at 11pm Wednesday once work and study done, realised I am totally crazy, went to work Thursday, then took said cakes for first ever Thanksgiving dinner - very fun! Then work again and study yesterday and realised I have never felt so tired. Only a Watkins would live like this and enjoy it. And strangely we usually live to be 100 years old too. You think we'd have keeled over by then.

Anyway, now that I have made my 4th cup of tea that I forgot to drink as I got sucked into something interesting, I think I should take a brief break. Roberto Burle Marx seminar coming on nicely, couple more slides for Group presentation, more back and forth with the extremely amazing Caz (Carolyn) who is the other team leader for our group task as well as me, then a quick watch of 'The Thick of it" (so brilliant) then sleep. That's the plan....

Pierscape - a whole new silly description? Interesting article and very relevant for waterside design...

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/theskyline/2011/11/navy-pier-picks-five-teams-to-compete-for-redesign-of-piers-public-spaces.html

TOPOS water and urbanism article which may be useful...

http://www.toposmagazine.com/blog/publication-on-dutch-water-urbanism.html

I did warn you that drawing was not my strong point...but I will get there...

So I spend all day working through investment disputes at a private bank, basically having to sift through reams of words and numbers and producing a persuasive argument for who wins...and my evenings trying to switch that off and switch on the other part of my brain that is free, imaginative and mad and, well, I actually kinda love the combination. Feel a mixture of losing my mind and utter happiness. Huh. 

quick sequential sketches - thanks to Grant, finally unravel the mysteries of scanning with the mac - yippee! This was a useful exercise, as I have not done much drawing, I can see some improvement, so now to practice a lot more

my kinda thinking - in the week that Steve Jobs dies, some of his best words:

Commencement speech at Stanford University, 2005

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

some say botch job, I like to think resourceful. ahem.

Week one - well, I am prepared for humiliation as a means to progress...!

So, we were given a task to survey a small site in 20 minutes and then do 4 quick sketches of our proposed design. I was aiming to do something bonkers, but then couldn't draw it, so had to tone it down and simplify. It's frustrating when you have never drawn very much - something to now work on! It will only get better...
oh great - I can't download them...

and back to blogging....this will be an emotionally charged month..so to start:

"Man differs from the lower animals because he preserves his past experiences. What happened in the past is lived again in memory. About what goes on today hangs a cloud of thoughts concerning similar things undergone in bygone days. With the animals, an experience perishes as it happens, and each new doing or suffering stands alone. But man lives in a world where each occurrence is charged with echoes and reminiscences of what has gone before, where each event is a reminder of other things. Hence he lives not, like the beasts of the field, in a world of merely physical things but in a world of signs and symbols. A stone is not merely hard, a thing into which one bumps; but it is a monument of a deceased ancestor. A flame is not merely something which warms or burns, but is a symbol of the enduring life of the household, of the abiding source of cheer, nourishment and shelter to which man returns from his casual wanderings." John Dewey

Book review:"Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmsted -- Abolitionist, Conservationist, and Designer of Central Park" By Justin Martin

http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110703/ENTERTAINMENT05/307039950

Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you. -- Oscar Wilde

today is the start

had an exhausting, but motivational "lecture" today from head of our course - Jamie. Am buzzing and excited. And terrified. But more excited. I can do this. I just need to ditch the fear of this new world, which I am still not sure I belong in, but that is just up to me.
More later, I am tired and need food. 

I love Henry Moore's work and it's currently showcased at Hatfield House, in Hatfield where I went to school

or 'atfield I should say. Well worth a visit and not far out of London. Hatfield House that is. I wouldn't recommend visiting Hatfield...

http://www.hatfield-house.co.uk/whats-on/exhibition-moore-at-hatfield/

I wholeheartedly agree and disagree with him..

http://bigthink.com/ideas/38436

If the link stops working it is Francis Fukuyama commenting on the End of History and how democratic capitalism will "be it" (I disagree) and how students are now too specialised and often form views based on social acceptance (I agree).

today my soul shall dance

http://drawhappy.wordpress.com/

A lovely idea this - please take a look.
I'm not very good at drawing. I never doodled in class at school (too busy talking and trying to make people laugh according to all my school reports), so only really began drawing 3 years ago and have really still not done much of it. I'm getting noticeably better though.
And drawing does really make you feel happy. Try it.

http://www.tiredoflondontiredoflife.com/

started to edit my profile, then realised how tired I am...only half done

a bit like everything at the moment

The Scottish in me is very proud (and sitting in darkness)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-12870551

This was the lights out in Edinburgh, with the aim of all of the city switching every light off to increase awareness and consideration of our energy consumption

I will try and get the whole vid for you later

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGE-c7g56tI

argh my radio is dying!

which is not ideal when you already don't own a television and I can never seem to play radio via the internet either. Huh. This is all surely a sign I should quit with this animation piece I am working on and crawl back into bed. I just want one day off. Just one itsy bitsy tiny little day off please. 

Ahhh sitting in a Mayfair park in the warm sunshine

Listening to the roar of Jag-u-arrrs and feeling extremely content. Beautiful buildings here and there is nothing like escaping from the office for a while and being in a green space. Lovely. These pockets of green are so important. I would add more trees though

Imposter syndrome - now this is something I have talked about lots of times

especially with friends when they are self-doubting or aiming too low. Of course, I have fallen victim to this myself plenty of times too. I wanted to share it with you as I find it an extremely interesting theory and I feel that this is an increasing trend, as is overall self-doubt and questioning in the modern world. We are so focused on the belief that we are going to physically destroy ourselves, have we stopped to consider we may destroy ourselves through the power of the mind?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome

As for the Dunning-Kruger effect mentioned at the end of the first paragraph - this is hilarious and also something I seem to have come across plenty of times, especially in the world of finance!

leave yourself behind

full heart and mind
wonder

to be or not to be...

so. I was waiting for my train to go into work (on a Saturday - bleurgh) and the sun was streaming down onto me (lovely) and I was peering over the blue painted (peeling) rail by the platform, onto the area which I am going to study shortly, which is a nature reserve. I identified a few trees and shrubs (more than I thought) and then began to think that I really didn't deserve to be a Landscape Architect.
I accepted that I had just never given the subject my full attention and I had flung my brain over the subject occasionally over the years, whilst distracted by so many other things. So. No feeling sorry for myself, it's about time I started fighting for it and I intend to do so more and more over the coming months. 7 years ago I decided that I had fallen upon a perfect subject for me. I met a warm, modest and inspiring man called Kim Wilkie who happened to be my brother's landlord at the time. Turns out he is one of the best Landscape Architects in Europe. He showed me his work with enthusiasm and I knew this was something exciting. One which could mean I could move with my work around the world, as I had always imagined. One that challenges me enough to actually keep me interested. So. I am going to stop feeling frustrated it has taken me so long to get this far and marvel in the fact that after 7 years; she who bores very easily, is still pretty damn enthralled by it all. Lucky me.
Enjoy his work:
ttp://www.kimwilkie.com/

Favourite quote of the day from Dazed & Confused March 2011

"the last straw for young people already re-rolling scraps of hope from the butt-ends of what we'd imagined our futures would be"
thought it was funny

oh and spend TWO minutes watching this please

http://www.dirtthemovie.org/




despite my Collie thinking that dirt is for covering yourself in, then running up to me with a big smile on his face ready to give me a bear hug, it is totally vital. I mean, literally 

and to close: one of my favourite quotes

So we shall let the reader answer this question for himself: who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?
~ Hunter S. Thompson


I would add to this: live your life with passion and love. Think about what you will really regret on your death bed. Really think about that. I tell all the people I love, that I love them. No matter how hard that can be sometimes and even where you do not always get that love back or when they find it too hard to say it to you. Every moment that I think how someone contributes to my life, I tell them. Even if people laugh at this.This matters to me. What matters to you? 
Those that know me, know that I do not say this to patronise. I learnt the hard way through a long illness, that just waking up and leaping out of bed, is truly bloody wonderful. My Dad always said to us children: "be positive". We used to groan! But we now get it. He didn't mean just think positive, he meant be positive, with every action. So, keep taking one step forward. Even if you are fighting against a force 10 gale, take action and you will feel better for it. 

sugar overload

I am eating a trillion minstrels whilst studying. After looking at calcs all day at work and coming home cream- crackered, I then had to sit down and study. Again. So, in went the sugar/cake/tea. Repeat. This resulted in me no longer worrying about my seminar and coming to the conclusion that I really can talk about anything quite merrily and so I decided to wing it, slap a few pics in, then I danced round my flat to Chopin whilst popping some more minstrels. After hitting predictable sugar low, Radox promised me they could "revive" me. Nope. Well, it did long enough for me to decide my powerpoint is dire.
Ah, it will be fine! It is frustrating on my course that I know in the real world my clear communication skills (note to employers, haha) will serve me well and I have been told in appraisals time and again that I have excellent "persuading and negotiating skills", well I did work in arbitration for 5 years (turning out to be very useful, in fact)  and was essentially trained how to argue at Philosophy A Level! So I know I will be able to "sell" (hate hate that word) my schemes and explain ideas clearly, but on this course it seems to count for so little when it comes to your mark. I am just never going to be the best at autocad or drawing. Frustrating that this counts for so much. Yes, I am repeating myself. But it reminds me of last year when I was in the SWA office in Texas (oooh name dropping there-for non Landscape Architects, this is a very well respected company) they said to me: "everyone here can draw well, so it means nothing. Now someone who can present well to the client or can do a brilliant write up to explain a concept - they are valuable and sought out." Got to keep reminding myself of that.

sigh. another random blog.

someone said to me at the weekend: "you are perfect for blogging as you say exactly what comes to your mind without any editing." I pointed out that this may be true, however, this is not good for me in terms of self-inflicted embarrassment in a public arena.
I do this blog merely as I do love writing and miss it and also as a modern "get to know me" for future employers. So, I have a year to build my internet identity. You ain't nobody without one I am told.
Anywho.
So, I have been listening to Taio Cruz and re-visiting "The Prince" whilst commuting. I wonder what Machiavelli would make of Taio. Taio provides us with catchy, cheery pop music although when he says: "I'm sorry I misleaded you" I want to speak with his mother. Similarly, I would like a long chat with Machiavelli's mother for obvious reasons. Although he is widely misunderstood. To a degree. I'm not saying he was nice or anything of course.
I am drafting a seminar on how we need to work with climate in the city rather than ignoring it and am sorely tempted to play Billy Idol's "Hot in the city" alongside it, but I fear it would be wasted on my audience. Well, it would amuse me at least. I will post said seminar once it is done. I may even record my presentation of it for your delectation. 

hmm

does anyone use the reverse camera on their iphone to look into whilst drying their hair? No? Just me then. My hairdryer cord won't reach my mirror. Yes, there are easier ways. Why is it that we always choose the easiest path? Especially when most of us waste hours of our lives doing trivial things, yet we cut across the good grass.
And another thing, the lovely Dave and my neighbour's builders put my fridge freezer in my garden for 8 days to defrost my freezer which had been jammed open and building up it's own arctic. Now my fridge is back home it has decided to freeze everything. So, I can buy no chilled food and I keep my milk outside my back door. True story.

Black Sheep

So, do you go outside on your lunch break?

Maybe you sit on the same bench every day or go for a walk, sit in a park or just on the steps of a fountain in the city centre. It is good to get outside isn't it? I used to work in Canary Wharf and loved going to Jubilee Park (more about that clever little park later - building a park directly on top of a large underground train station, with a substantial amount of water to drown out the sounds of air conditioning units from the skyscrapers surrounding it was not an easy task). Oh okay, I've started so...
http://www.cabe.org.uk/case-studies/jubilee-park/description
Anyway, have a think about that the next time you just want to escape from the office. Every little part of the outdoor world is pretty important and without it being well-designed, I believe it would have a significant effect on our well being. Now, someone just needs to tell me how to have time for a proper lunch break...

Let's start with something incongruous to a blog.

If that's the right word. I'm sure someone will let me know if not. The first part of a modern day story/experiment that will make you think.  Although the next part is more thought-provoking, you need to see this to introduce the ideas. Here is Part One of a very interesting documentary I watched a while ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQsos4cmWZI

okay, one more thing. Canary Wharf...

...is hugely underrated. In particular, please look at "man with open arms" 3/4 of the way down the page. He is an absolute favourite of mine. I used to walk or drive past him just to feel exhilaration rush through me. Do what makes you smile. And do it often.

http://exploringeastlondon.co.uk/eel/Canary/Canary.htm

anyway. that's enough to start. more soon. This was meant to be my first night off in ages, but this was on my to do list so I thought why not.

Wonder, as in wonder!! and also wonder?? Summing up nicely my constant child-like thought pattern

I'll be right back. Just have to get another pookie (that's hot water bottle if you're not a Scottish Smith)

why the name of my blog? the abridged version

I like:
1. stories with meaning
2. the land and outdoors
3. anything unusual and exciting
4. anything complex and challenging. oh and straight lines. I like straight lines.

So, the name kinda made sense.
Enjoy.

why the name of my blog?

So, I hope that some of you reading are new to landscape architecture or for those that aren't you will already understand our predicament.
Someone silly called our profession "Landscape Architecture" some years back. Yes I could quote some facts here about who did, when and why, but who gives a crap really. I read about it in a book once.
Basically, this title (in particular in the UK, where this profession sadly trails the rest of the world) is a pretty misleading (read: terrible) description of what we do. We spend too much time having to explain what it means.
So, just to be clear; no, I cannot design your garden. It should be noted that garden designers actually have to go through a lot of training to do what they do well, so it would, in fact, be in an insult to them to consider I could well design a garden, when we study that area only briefly.
I fear I am about to quote from wiki, my apologies, but:
"Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor and public spaces to achieve environmental, socio-behavioral, and/or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic investigation of existing social, ecological, and geological conditions and processes in the landscape, and the design of interventions that will produce the desired outcome."
So, do you get it?
Anyway, on this blog I make a foray into the apparently mysterious and incredibly diverse world of landscape architecture. Join me and I promise to make you laugh now and then. And maybe teach you something new.
I intend to share and tell stories (well, we all love to talk in my family), tell you some more about our incredible land and planet, show you some brilliant things from around the world to marvel at and unravel the complexity of design.  
Well, I do love a challenge...

Oh. hello.